"Teacher education in the UK: the peculiarities of the English - and of the Welsh, Northern Irish and Scottish!"

ESCalate ITE Conference, Carlisle, 16 May 2006

Ian Menter

Structure of presentation

• Introduction• ‘Home international’ comparative studies• Standards across the UK• The peculiarities of:

– The English– The Scots– The Northern Irish– The Welsh

• Conclusions

Introduction: purposes

• to encourage interest in and awareness of the power of ‘home international’ comparative studies in teacher education in the UK

• to identify some of the key similarities and differences in approaches to ITE across the UK and to offer some tentative explanations for these patterns

Introduction: Two underlying premises

• Within a democratic society it is reasonable to expect that the ways in which teachers are prepared to work with today’s young people should indicate how policymakers and indeed the community at large see the future – what it is that citizens will need to develop as individuals and as contributors to the society.

• There is a profound connection between, on the one hand, policies and practices in teacher education, and, on the other hand, teacher supply and retention.

Introduction: Three studies

• Convergence or Divergence? Initial teacher education policy and practice in Scotland and England – University of Paisley (now University of the West of Scotland), with Estelle Brisard and Ian Smith

• Models of partnership in initial teacher education – a literature review for the GTCS – with Estelle Brisard and Ian Smith

• Learning to Teach in post-devolution UK – a scoping study for the ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme – with Moira Hulme (Glasgow); Martin Jephcote (Cardiff); Pat Mahony (Roehampton); Anne Moran (Ulster)

Introduction: Quiz time!

• Who is Gordon Brown?

• Who is the first minister for Scotland?

• Northern Ireland?

• Wales?

• MP for Kircaldy and Cowdenbeath

• Alex Salmond

• Ian Paisley (but not for much longer)

• Rhodri Morgan

Introduction: Quiz 2!!

• Who is Ed Balls?

• Who is Fiona Hyslop?

• Who is Catriona Duaine?

• Who is Jane Hutt?

• Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families

• Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Scottish Government

• Minister, Department of Education, NI Executive

• Minister for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills, Welsh Assembly Govt.

The United Kingdom?

‘Home international’ comparative studies

• Methodology• Border skirmishes• The question of scale

‘Home international’ studies: border skirmishes

• Offa’s Dyke• The Irish Sea• Hadrian’s Wall

‘Home international’ studies: the question of scale

Table 1. UK population (mid-2005)

• England 50,431,700 (83.8%),• Wales 2,958,600 (4.9%),• Scotland 5,094,800 (8.5%)• Northern Ireland 1,724,400 (2.9%)

• Total United Kingdom 60,209,500(Source: National Statistics)

‘Home international’ studies: the question of scale

Table 2. The local administration of education in the four parts of the UK, 2007

• England 150 Local Authorities• Wales 22 Local Authorities• Scotland 32 Local Authorities• Northern Ireland 5 regional Education

and Library Boards (ELBs) (these are to be replaced by a new single Education and Skills Authority (ESA))

‘Home international’ studies: the question of scale

Table 3. Pupil numbers and number of schools in the four parts of the UK, 2006

Pupils Schools

(publicly funded schools)

• England 8.2 million 25,335• Wales 489,570 1,785• Scotland 702,737 5,781• Northern Ireland 312,983 1,124

‘Home international’ studies: the question of scale

Table 4. FTE teachers employed by local authorities/ELBs in the four parts of the UK

Number of Full Time Equivalent Teachers

• England 434,900 2007

• Wales 29,397 2004

• Scotland 47,561 2004

• Northern Ireland 19,702 2006

‘Home international’ studies: the question of scale

Table 5

Providers of Initial Teacher Education

• England: 76 HEIs, over 60 SCITTs (several of which are in HEIs), EBRs, TF

• Northern Ireland: 4 at present (1 old university, 1 new university, 2 university colleges)

• Scotland: 7 (six old universities and one new)• Wales 7: (2 old universities, one university college,

four new universities/institutes) – soon to be three?• Plus the Open University

Standards

• England and Wales: ‘professional standards’

• Scotland: ‘benchmark/standards’

• Northern Ireland: ‘competence statements’

• Outcome statements of what is required of trainees

• Statements of what courses should address

• Developing competences

Standards

• In all four countries standards address:

• (1) professional values and practice• (2) professional knowledge and

understanding• (3) professional skills and abilities

Standards: England

• 2. The framework of professional standards for teachers set out below defines the characteristics of teachers at each career stage. Specifically it provides professional standards for: – • the award of Qualified Teacher Status (QTS)

(Q) – • teachers on the main scale (Core) (C) – • teachers on the upper pay scale (Post

Threshold Teachers) (P) – • Excellent Teachers (E)

– • Advanced Skills Teachers (ASTs) (A)

Standards: Northern Ireland

The 27 teacher competences have been organised within 3 broad areas within the document:

• Professional Values and Practice • Professional Knowledge and Understanding • Professional Skills and ApplicationEach competence has also been delineated by way of phase

exemplars, across each phase of teacher education: - inital teacher education - induction- early professional development- continuuing professional development, collaborative practice and school improvement

The Council's Code of Values and Professional Practice has also been included as an integral element of the competence model.

Standards: Scotland

• Standard for Initial Teacher Education• Standard for Full Registration• Standard for Chartered teacher• Standard for Headship

Standards: Wales

• Statement of Professional Values and Practice

The peculiarities of the English

• Partnership• Diverse routes• Skills tests• And now…

….MTL

The peculiarities of the English: skills tests

Intending to teach or qualified outside of England?• Candidates who train in England but who are intending to teach in other

parts of the UK will still need to pass all of the skills tests. There are reciprocal arrangements in place for the recognition of teaching qualifications throughout the UK. However, candidates who trained in England but have not yet passed the tests will not be considered fully qualified in England and will therefore not be considered qualified in the rest of the UK. Candidates wishing to teach in countries outside of the UK must check with the relevant country’s education authorities regarding their requirements for the award of a teaching qualification in that country.

• Teachers who qualified in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales will not need to take the QTS skills tests should they wish to teach in England. Initial teacher training in those countries does not currently include a statutory requirement to complete skills tests. Once a teacher has qualified in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales, the reciprocal arrangements in place regarding the recognition of teaching qualifications within the UK will mean that their qualifications will be recognised by the General Teaching Council for England upon application, and they will be awarded QTS.

From TDA website 12/05/08

The peculiarities of the Scots

• Induction• Chartered teacher• Scottish Teachers for a

New Era• The role of the GTCS in

accreditation and registration – maintaining quality or embedding conservatism?

• and the problem with partnership

The peculiarities of the Northern Irish

• A divided society?• The two traditions• Problems of over

supply• Structural

reorganisation• The three I’s?• and the problem with

partnership

The peculiarities of the Welsh

• Implementing the seamless web – a systematic approach to Early professional development, a grant for induction and for CPD

• Piloting a Chartered Teacher scheme

• Welsh language• Restructuring post-

Furlong• Geographical

challenges

Conclusions

1 The significance of the policy context• This relates both to key political themes but also to

the institutional arrangements for teacher education.• Why is there no TDA or Ofsted outside England?• Why does the English GTC have such limited powers,

certainly in comparison with Scotland, but also increasingly by comparison with Wales and Northern Ireland?

• The resourcing of ITE

Conclusions

• 2 ‘Teaching as a research-based profession’ – what does it mean in the UK?

• The invidious divisive effects of the RAE:

• a. The old and the new and the very small proportion of student teachers that are studying in institutions that receive funding for educational research

• b. The tendency for England to dominate in the research agenda - hence ‘Developing Celtic Capacity in educational research’

• Re-emergence of action research?

Conclusions

• 3 The need for more research – both national, home international but also international

• Major studies: BaT (Nottingham); A values base for ITE (Ulster)Early Professional Development (Stirling and MMU)

• The TEG resource – supported by ESCalate, UCET, BERA and TLRP – demonstrates that there is a preponderance of small-scale practitioner research

…and finally…

• What we have in the UK – and we have the advantage of there being a number of organisations such as ESCalate, UCET and BERA, that do cover the whole of the UK – is the potential for considerably enhanced learning between our neighbouring nations. We have a kind of education research and development laboratory.